For all the political disagreements and (on some parts) preening involved, this episode turned out to be a great Senate moment — see my post below for a sense of why I think that. But now I’m seeing some people say, See how bad it is that all these people were trying to reform the filibuster? This is what you’d destroy! Read More

It started with a quixotic effort by the libertarian Sen. Rand Paul blocking a vote on John Brennan’s nomination for CIA Director focused on questions about whether the White House thinks it is permissible under any circumstances to order drone strikes within the United States. (Much of the furor centers on this exchange from earlier in the day between AG Holder and Sen. Cruz.) Over the first few hours, it was just Sens. Paul and then Cruz and Lee. But if you haven’t been watching through the night, at a certain point it morphed into a litmus test issue for Republican Senators. Read More